How Digital Business Strategy Shapes Task Complexity in Datafication of Knowledge Work

Abstract

Traditionally, knowledge workers delivered value from complex job tasks that were determined by the amount of information they cognitively processed. In organizations practicing digital business strategies, information handling is progressively replaced by data processed for algorithmic decision support. When organizational processes are becoming increasingly data-driven, shifts in the central task component of complexity are expected. In this paper, we draw on a quantitative survey of 150 knowledge-intensive organizations in the U.S., and find that knowledge workers are perceiving increased complexity in their daily tasks, now shaped by the digital work environment. Executing a digital business strategy increases the IT dependency of business processes and emphasizes data as determinant of increased task complexity. Our research contributes to explain consequences of datafication for individual job tasks in knowledge work when organizations strategically strive to gain value from digital technologies and provides building blocks for future job design when designing for digital.